How to Get Absolutely Anything Done

You know those tasks you kinda-don’t-really-want-to-do, but kinda-really-have-to-do?

Yeah, me too.

It can be hard to motivate yourself to get them done sometimes.

Heck, it can be hard to motivate yourself to get things done period sometimes.

But I think I’ve found a way to get absolutely ANYTHING done.

3 STEPS TO GET ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING DONE

PPS is my system for getting absolutely anything done!

I mean it. Anything and everything can and will get done if you follow PPS, which stands for: Prioritize, Plan, and Schedule.

It’s the 3 steps I do for every single task on my to-do list (especially the ones that make me cringe a bit). There’s also a prep step that I highly recommend doing before you start PPS and a bonus step in case you need a firmer hand.

PREP STEP: CHANGE YOUR MINDSET

It is so important to get up in the morning and walk to your desk with a positive attitude. If you sit down at your desk thinking, “UGH! I have to [ insert dreaded task here ]!” getting that task done will be as awful and trudging as you think it will.

But if you sit down at your desk thinking, “I got this! That inbox is MINE!” getting through that task will be so much easier and more enjoyable (and may even take you less time than you thought because your mindset is positive instead of negative).

STEP 1: PRIORITIZE IT

It’s never the everyday stuff we have trouble getting done. It’s the grueling tasks and bigger projects that we have trouble with.

My advice is to do a brain dump of all the things you need to do and want to do. Draw lines on blank pieces of paper so you can separate your projects and tasks into categories. This ensures your brain dump is organized and not a total mess that you’ll have to organize again later.

Start prioritizing what needs to be done FIRST. What’s past due? What’s due tomorrow? What’s due by the end of the week? What needs to get done in order for something else to get done? What kinds of deadlines do you want to have for future projects?

Start numbering your projects and tasks in the order of which they need to be tackled and completed.

STEP 2: PLAN IT

Everything takes twice as long as you think it will.Remember that when you’re guesstimating how long you think each task or project will take you.

Don’t try to tackle a big project all in one day. Break each project down into nice, bite-size (realistic) pieces aka tasks. If you want to spend an entire day updating your website, great! But break the “update your website” project down into bite-size pieces like page-by-page. It’ll make looking at your to-do list for the day much less intimidating.

STEP 3: SCHEDULE IT

Did you know:

“Ultra-productive people don’t work from a to-do list, but they do live and work from their calendar.” – Forbes

If you just simply write out a to-do list, nothing gets done. You need to plan WHEN you’re going to do it. Every single task or project must get assigned a date and time to be worked on or completed. (This is where time blocking comes in extra handy!)

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Meet Alexandra

Hello, and welcome to my little corner of the internet where everything is color-coded, coffee always comes in cute coffee mugs, and office supplies are never in short supply. I'm Alexandra--your resident productivity + systems specialist here to provide you with resources, education, and inspiration for making your passion productive. New here? Start here!